STORY ARCHIVE

Land Speed Record

TRANSCRIPT

Dr Derek MullerI'm here to see a rocket car. I'm stopping in to visit Rosco McGlashan, an old friend of the show.

NARRATIONRosco's currently the fastest Aussie on four wheels. But he's more obsessed than ever with being the first person to break a thousand miles per hour. That's over sixteen-hundred kilometres per hour.

Dr Derek MullerThis, this is impressive. This you got to see.

NARRATIONIt's the Aussie Invader 5R rocket car.

Dr Derek MullerRosco, how are you doing?

Rosco McGlashanLovely to meet you. Yeah.

NARRATIONRosco's an icon in the speed game after a lifetime pursuing his dream. But this time, his rocket car is something out of this world.

Dr Derek MullerThis rocket motor, did you make this yourself?

Rosco McGlashanNo, this was made in the US and it's known as a B3 motor. A B3 motor is built for NASA.

Dr Derek MullerThis is what they would stick on the back of their rockets

Dr Derek MullerAnd you're sticking it on the back of your car. Do you think that sounds like a good idea?

Rosco McGlashanSounds like a brilliant idea.

NARRATIONIt's a controlled explosion that will now be fuelled with liquid oxygen and biokerosene.

Rosco McGlashanWe were going to use hydrogen peroxide as the oxidiser once before, and the only company in the world that would supply it for us, the plant blew up in Sweden. So that put an end to the hydrogen peroxide.

Rosco McGlashanWell, we couldn't get it but in saying that, the whole thing with this whole car is its the world's most powerful car. So this has got two hundred thousand horse power. This engine produces two hundred thousand horse power or sixty-two thousand pounds of thrust.

NARRATIONThis rocket has fifty-two thousand pounds of thrust. Ten thousand less than the B3 Rosco's strapping himself in front of.

Dr Derek MullerHow fast does the gas come out the back of this?

Rosco McGlashanBloody fast, yeah, yeah.

Dr Derek Muller(LAUGHS) That's the technical term, is it?

NARRATIONRosco also recently unveiled his new aluminium wheels, designed to withstand the extreme forces experienced at a thousand miles per hour.

Rosco McGlashanIt's designed to turn at ten thousand RPM and when it's turning at ten thousand RPM the growth in this wheel is actually seeing fifty thousand G at the periphery of this wheel.

Dr Derek MullerFifty thousand G!

Rosco McGlashanYeah

Dr Derek MullerThat doesn't sound like mathematically possible. How can it, how can it hang together?

NARRATIONBut with our mathematician on the freeway &hellip;

Simon PampenaThis is awesome! Whoo!

NARRATION&hellip; we'll just have to trust Rosco it'll work. Rosco is hopeful his wheels will hit the mud flats of Nevada in the US or at an Australian site in 2014.

Dr Derek MullerIs there anyone else trying to break the landspeed record right now?

Rosco McGlashanYeah, there's a couple of teams throughout the world. There's, our main opposition are the Brits.

NARRATIONThey hold the current record of twelve-hundred-and-twenty-seven kilometres per hour. And will attack the thousand miles per hour mark in this, the Bloodhound SSC.

Dr Derek MullerYou're doing this on a shoe-string budget. What sort of money do they have?

Rosco McGlashanThey're spending about fifteen million pounds a year.

Dr Derek MullerFifteen million pounds a year?

Rosco McGlashanYeah, don't know what hey're doing.

NARRATIONIt's a David and Goliath battle, but Rosco believes that with support, he can get there first, and in his own style.

Rosco McGlashanIf we look at this canopy, this is magic, have look at this. Open sesame!

Dr Derek MullerWow! You put in some special tech just for that didn't you. And what about this green...so that's to let people know that you're coming, is that right, in case they didn't hear the rocket motors.

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Nick Cohn - 09 Feb 2013 4:32:10am

Dear Derek,As a supporter of Bloodhound SSC I'd like to point out that they wish that they had funding like that! I believe 15 million was the original cost estimate for the whole project. It is a great pity that Rosco didnâ€™t get the record in 1996. That would have been great for LSR history. I (and the Bloodhound team too) wish Rosco a safe and successful LSR bid. His competition makes going 1000mph even more exciting! But of course Bloodhound will come out on top. ;-)

Nick Cohn

William - 08 Feb 2013 9:29:31am

Hi Derek,

Rosco's Invader 5R rocket car is pretty awesome & looks scary fast when it's not even moving! While you were sitting in the drivers seat, did you get a weird feeling in your stomach when Rosco answered your question about 'getting scared'...."Not yet mate. It'll be a little different when we fire the rocket up but yeah..." (It will definitely feel a 'little different' with 200,000 horse power blasting away away)

In regard to the Brits 'Bloodhound SSC', the details I really love focus on the people involved in the project. The following link is to a video that explains some of the fascinating & inspiring details;

http://www.bloodhoundssc.com/news/bloodhound-mission

It would be really great if Rosco could get support for the Invader 5R in a similar way to the Bloodhound SSC.